Peggy Suicide
Artist: Julian Cope

Casting the ill-advised attempts at too-clean modern rock from his late-'80s days firmly aside and fulfilling the promise of Skellington and Droolian, Cope on Peggy Suicide produced his best album to date, overtopping even his Teardrop Explodes efforts. Showing a greater musical breadth and range than ever before, from funk to noise collage --... Read More

Catching Up with Depeche Mode
Artist: Depeche Mode
Community Score: 8.54

Like its predecessor, People Are People, Catching Up With Depeche Mode attempts to fill in gaps in the group's extensive discography by compiling singles and album tracks taken from their four previous studio LPs. Dating back to the band's Vince Clarke-penned hits ("Just Can't Get Enough," "Dreaming of Me"), the set culminates with tracks like... Read More

Ocean Rain
Artist: Echo & the Bunnymen
Community Score: 9.30

Channeling the lessons of the experimental Porcupine into more conventional and simple structural parameters, Ocean Rain emerges as Echo & the Bunnymen's most beautiful and memorable effort. Ornamenting Ian McCulloch's most consistently strong collection of songs to date with subdued guitar textures, sweeping string arrangements, and hauntingly... Read More

Psychocandy
Artist: The Jesus and Mary Chain
Community Score: 8.31

Arguably Psychocandy is an album with one trick and one trick alone -- Beach Boys melodies meet Velvet Underground feedback and beats, all cranked up to ten and beyond, along with plenty of echo. However, what a trick it is. Following up on the promise of the earliest singles, the Jesus and Mary Chain with Psychocandy arguably created a movement... Read More

Album/Compact Disc/Cassette
Artist: Public Image Ltd.
Community Score: 9.00

Hot guitars and 4/4 time signatures make this sound more like a hard-rock album than anything Lydon's done since The Sex Pistols. And the hit single "Rise" is actually a catchy number, believe it or not. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Read More

Ain't Love Grand!
Artist: X
Community Score: 6.00

After several exceptional (but commercially underappreciated) classic albums, X decided to change their approach on the fifth album, 1985's Ain't Love Grand! The most noticeable difference is in the production. Renown heavy metal producer Michael Wagener was on board (whose credits include Mötley Crüe, Dokken, and Great White), replacing... Read More

A Can of Bees
Artist: The Soft Boys

One of the band's earliest recordings, featuring their signature tune "Give It to the Soft Boys," A Can of Bees includes a lot of the zaniness principal member Robyn Hitchcock would become known for in his later work, but the band had not yet jelled and found them still in search of their ultimate sound, an amalgam of new wave and psychedelia.... Read More

Floored Genius 2: The Best of the BBC Sessions 1983-1991
Artist: Julian Cope

Released some months after the first Floored Genius and sharing its basic artwork and design concept -- even though it was released on a completely different label -- Floored Genius 2 is a wonderful collection of recordings Cope did for the BBC in between his earliest solo days in 1983 and Peggy Suicide's release in 1991. Mick Houghton, who did... Read More